Felipe's cRPG Book - Open call for reviews

I've been slowly but surely getting more notes down for my first draft. I'm aiming to have it done by the end of my second week of school holidays (starting now…

I've also been enjoying a little bit of research on the side and just immersing myself into the world of Bard's Tale again. It's been quite the nostalgia trip! In fact, I'm sneaking in a little bit of Devil Whiskey here and there - as I never did finish that game. Glad to hear that MCA is contributing…

I plan on sending my first draft within the next couple of days , honestly writing and deleting so much drafts (writing is not my strong point! better on the mic) and the van buren interview took up my time but I am going full force into the article and I will do my best to help the book!

This guy is compiling a digital book that will review over 280 computer RPGs—and when it's done, you can get it for free. Developers like Obsidian's Chris Avellone have already agreed to participate. "The book is going well, but I need some spotlight to travel into the far reaches of the internet and reach fans with stories to tell," curator Felipe Pepe tells Kotaku. You can see some sample reviews here, and keep track of his progress on Google Docs.

The first sample reviews look beautiful and are an interesting read as well!

felipepepe, have you considered correcting the aspect ratio of screenshots from the good old VGA mode 13h (320x200 pixels)?

Remember that while games were played in fullscreen on a 4:3 monitor, in mode 13h pixels weren't square but had an effective aspect ratio of 1.2:1. When displayed in today's square-pixel environments, they look distorted, and in order to make them look correct they'd have to be upscaled to 320x240. Here's an example (enlarged to 2x the original size):

Original 320x200 image, meant to be scaled up to fill a 4:3 monitor.

Fixed aspect ratio (320x240). This is what the image actually used to look like.

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey

(In case it hasn't been mentioned yet. Might want to add it to the OP, felipe.)

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey

Originally Posted by felipepepe
Only the DOS and Apple ][ games were like this, right? The Amiga screen shots I have all seem to be in a proper ratio.

Amiga had lots of modes, 320x200 was common too. Here's a short article with example screenshots: http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.de/2…or-ibm-pc.html. The last comment sheds some light on the different resolutions, and the user says most of them ended up being scaled to 4:3.

So I guess if your screenshots have a 4:3 resolution you'll be fine (exceptions excluded, of course, like the "Elite Plus" example in the article above, which was probably letterboxed). Others may have to be scaled manually…

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey